Webinar March 7: Effective peer programming on substance use for the transition years

Providing transition-aged students with meaningful education on substance misuse continues to be a challenge. Currently, fewer students are smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and using marijuana at an early age. Nonetheless, the transition from elementary to high school is still a time where these substances are introduced to students, and students continue to perceive that alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana are fairly easy to obtain [OSDUHS, 2015]. Providing transition-aged students with meaningful education on substance misuse continues to be a challenge.

This webinar will provide information on an effective school-based program that provides realistic, relevant and reliable information to students – provided by other students. Using the experience of peer education programming from Parent Action on Drugs (PAD) we will hear from educational instructors, a public health nurse, a mental health counselor and student peer educators on their involvement in this program. The presentation will focus on how and why a program that engages students where they are at – rather than where we would like them to be – is effective and engaging for both the peer educator and their transition-aged audience.